Faun Fables - Family Album

by Maarten Schiethart

published: 3 / 4 / 2004

Label: Drag City
Format: CD

Compelling debut album from spooky new acoustic duo, Faun Fables

Review

Ecstatic theatre put to music? The fact is that even two people can deliver an impressive array of acoustic styles and, with Faun Fables' 'Family Album', here is another album that fulfills in the ongoing search for originality. Faun Fables' Dawn Faun's vocals have the pure volume of any metropole's alarm siren and her warning signal is like a warm shower over odd story singing. At least often enough to make 'Family Album' a transition, or a fairy tale experience, though through time, Faun also gives you the creeps. Up to the listener it is, to allow her compelling addresses to be heard, or to simply to listen to an advance in a degree of disorientation. As soon as you put on 'Family Album' though, your mind starts wandering which is what a record should do in the first place. Her lyrics veer towards absurdism based on true facts. Indeed, like when she sings 'a mouse is getting bolder when people are asleep'. This puts into perspective the allocation of Faun's Fables. Her shrieks will turn the pages in this 'Family Album' and yet at the same time, Faun's very pure voice kind of seduces you. Her stories then do not thrive on intimacy but rather give you her intimate thoughts on matters pretty much profane. Still with grace though, the track 'Caroussel With Madonnas' (misspelt on the album by the way) is as cynical as one could get. What would follow then next,is gorgeous yodelling and if you felt you'd know what to expect next, you'd be left desperate. The vaguely early 70-ish touch to 'Family Album' also smoothly becomes contemporary. On the occasion of the album photo-shoot, dressed as a woman, Faun's sidekick Nils Frykdahl ensures the continuation as he's entangled in the set-up rather than removed like many would be with a character as strong as Faun's. With a touch of cabaret and melody she shouts out messages. Moreover her vocals echo the power Sandy Denny once had. Wonderland sounds, eerie lullabies, esoteric with a capitol E and rootsy nonetheless, the album is destined to keep you puzzled for a while. The abundant impact of sound, as sparse as it is, comes with unprecedented joy.

Track Listing:-

1 Eyes Of A Bird
2 Poem, No. 2
3 A Mother And A Piano
4 Lucy Belle
5 Joshua
6 Nop Of Time
7 Still Here
8 Preview
9 Higher
10 Carousel With Madonnas
11 Rising Din
12 Fear March
13 Eternal
14 Mouse Song
15 Old And Light